


Fleet-of-Foot

by RenderedReversed



Series: Original Work [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Free Verse, Gen, Youth, aka i have no idea what i'm doing, life - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-05-02 00:01:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5226179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RenderedReversed/pseuds/RenderedReversed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An old woman once said to me,<br/>"The world is a garden--<br/>A garden of broken stones<br/>And crumbling glass.<br/>Our minds are in our chests,<br/>And our hearts are in our feet.<br/>That's why when we're hurt,<br/>Our chests pang,<br/>And our feet stop walking."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fleet-of-Foot

An old woman once said to me,  
"The world is a garden--  
A garden of broken stones  
And crumbling glass.  
Our minds are in our chests,  
And our hearts are in our feet.  
That's why when we're hurt,  
Our chests pang,  
And our feet stop walking."

She was a funny old woman  
Who liked to take walks and  
Feed the neighborhood ducks.  
Her feet were always bare,  
Dirtied and cracked like  
A distorted mirror; a window  
Too thick and too heavy;  
Lagging--dragging--  
Dreading to move.

I was too little then to know  
Exactly what she meant--  
Too inexperienced and too young;  
Too bright and full of future  
To understand her despair  
And measure it to the redwood  
Trees--forever green, tall,  
And lonely in their forests  
Of life and promise.

When I grew older I fell  
In love with a man, and he  
In love with me. But it was  
A funny thing--our love--and  
He ended before I began.  
And so when I ran barefoot  
Into the forest, still too young  
And still too new, I refused to  
Listen and scraped my knee.

Maybe the woman knew all  
Along who I would later become;  
Her chest sagged and her  
Back arched like a shrimp,  
Too small to ever be heard.  
When I think back to her feet,  
I wondered why she never  
Wore shoes--and along the  
Hard concrete, I knew.

I opened the door,  
Slipped on my trainers,  
And took a step outside.  
It was the light that stung,  
The stone steps that slapped,  
The air that gnashed and the  
Earth that cracked. I am not  
Strong enough, they said,  
To take off my shoes.

Instead, I ran.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Fleet-of-Foot (podfic)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9669398) by [MTKiseki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MTKiseki/pseuds/MTKiseki)




End file.
